workin hard...

My boy turned 1 year old last week...so it's high time that he gets a job...right?

Milk aint cheap, and neither are diapers.  So we put him to work in the fields...

...but that wasn't really working out. 

He kept trying to eat the sticks and strike these GQ poses.  It weirded everyone else out.

So we decided that maybe he could make a living out of being really really ridiculously good looking...

we are in talks with Osh Kosh B'gosh right now for him to be their newest male model.

That's a lie.

But he's pretty cute right?

and then we have my daughter....she's just a mess all her own.
Lucky for her she's cute.
she doesn't have a job yet either but she does love rocks.
Anyone want to pay her to throw rocks up in the air?



I Heart Faces...WHITE

The challenge this week is something white.  I haven't had a chance to really get any good bride portraits which is what I first thought would be good....but then i knew i would have something with a lot of white...so i decided to enter this one...
I visited a friend in the hospital after she had just had her 3rd baby boy and captured a few pics of the short moments of new baby-dom.  I love the innocence and love in this picture

Be sure and check out the other 'white' submissions this week!

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Baby H (cutest name ever but you won't know!)

This week I got to go and see another newborn baby!  All of these baby wanting hormones are bound to kick in eventually....
Baby H was nearly 2 weeks old before I got to meet him but he was worth the wait and absolutely adorable.  Him momma and daddy will have their hands full with this little guy.  Thank you for letting me capture your sweet baby boy.  These moments are fleeting so I'm happy to be a part of making them last forever!

we'll start with the pics of the cutest expression on a baby boy!

this expression was hilarious...i had to include it...

on to total sweetness....

he sure does love his momma...wonder why?  ;)

this big beautiful bay window was a dream.  Mr. H seemed to enjoy it (and the space heater) as well

I may or may not have gone a little crazy with the sweet feet photos...

oh umbilical cord stubs!

did i mention how awesome this window was?

this next pic captures this sweet 1st time momma's connection with her baby...so sweet and endearing...

last but not least ...sittin like a boss...

thank you again for letting me into your home and lives!

test subject :)

Baby "I" has become a sort of model/test subject for his mom and I.  Momma is learning the ropes of the dslr camera world so we've been hanging out and what better way to practice than on a newborn baby!?  He has started smiling a little here and there....or gas bubbling but whatever it is it's darn cute!!

I Heart Faces Contest....

I've entered a challenge on the site I Heart Faces and it had to be a photo of a pet.  I knew JUST which photo I wanted to enter.  This is just ever so slightly different in pose than the one i have hanging in my house but i just love it.  Everything my baby girl loves, her Hum bear, her boots, and a doggie.

check out this blog/site...it's awesome!

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

one of these days....

one of these days i will actually set up another photo shoot...but until then, the snapshots keep me going.  We had a little pool party today for Xander's continuous bday celebration...

mom cut it out....i'm far too cool for this party...peace out!

1 year?! Where did that go!?

Exactly one year ago today i was probably at one of the most miserable times.  I was 38 weeks pregnant, I was struggling with SVT, It was 95 degrees every day, i was still working part time, and I was about the size of a narwhal...which is 3500 lbs for those who aren't narwhal specialists.  Aren't narwhals fascinating creatures?!  I've never seen one at Seaworld or a zoo or anything, so i thought they were extremely endangered, but no....no they are not.  In fact they aren't even threatened.  Barely even a concern!  So why don't we hear more about them!?  The wikipedia page on them is tiny!  It's like nobody cares!  I care narwhals....i care.
So anyways....my baby will be one year old in four days.  That's crazy!  We had a family get together tonight to celebrate and let him open his gifts in the comforts of home.  We couldn't all get together until around 6:30pm and bedtime is USUALLY 7 so we stayed home.  This little man had the best day and behaved SO well.  We had taken him to the zoo earlier so he had a blast looking at the animals and wandering the zoo...and then he got to open presents, and eat CAKE!  The best pictures of the boy came from cake eating....which was HILARIOUS with this hambone!

we will DEFINITELY be giving this another go with a better photo shoot in the future.  The boy loves his cake!! :)

zucchini cheddar biscuits!

do yourself a favor....and make these today.  I came across the recipe through thepioneerwoman.com, which led me to tastykitchen.com, which led me to acozykitchen.com.  They looked yummy and I was in an odd mood to bake, and had 2 zucchinis to do something with.  So if you like Red Lobster's biscuits, and who doesn't...so if you are a true blooded American, make these today :)

first you'll need to shred/grate up about 1 cup of zucchini, which is basically one larger sized zucchini.
Zucchini is a glorious food, it can be sauteed, fried, grilled, baked, mashed, shredded, stripped, sliced...ANYTHING!
anyways...back to this....

after you shred the zucchini place it into a cheesecloth and squeeze the juices out of it.  There is a lot of juice in those babies!  Place them aside and sprinkle 1/2 tsp of salt and a dash of flour over them.  Make sure they are dry or the world will indeed end.
Next you'll want to realize that your infant son smells ripe and change his diaper.  It's nasty so you'll need to wash your hands too.  Then get totally pre-occupied in following this recipe and watching your baby, and waking up your toddler because if she sleeps too long she'll never go to bed tonight, and take no more pictures of the mixing process like you had planned on doing because WAHLAH!  They are done!

easiest recipe EVER right?!
 ok but no really the whole recipe is taken from this site...
I made some slight changes shown below...
http://acozykitchen.com/

Makes 15 biscuits

1 cup zucchini, shredded (about 1 large zucchini)
2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 cup grated cheddar
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 stick butter, warm and cubed
1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

Shred the zucchini. Using a cheese cloth, add the zucchini to the center and squeeze all of the excess water out. Transfer to a small bowl and add 1/2 teaspoon salt and a dash of flour. Mix and let stand for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Working quickly, add the cubed butter and break up with your hands until they’re the size of small peas.
Add the milk, zucchini and cheddar until moistened. Drop batter, using two tablespoons, on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Serve warm with pat of butter.

I made 2 pans worth at one time and i think it took closer to 20 mins for mine to bake up....so just watch 'em!

sneak peak behind the camera

alright here is a peak behind my lens.  The picture of Kenzie that i got yesterday wasn't exactly one that I had time to focus on and compose correctly since Xander was about to walk into our neighbors yard and Kenzie only looks at me for about .126937309 seconds.  I snapped the photo right as she looked at me and it captured her eyes in their gorgeousness well enough, but it just wasn't quite what i wanted.  So here is a before and after edits.

I cropped to the rule of thirds to focus on her eyes.  Then I upped the exposure a little.  I tinted the grass behind her with some slight orange and brightened it up so it sorta faded into the background.  After that I exposed the entire photo slightly more and brought up Kenzie's skin tone so that her skin wasn't washed out.  Then I tinted everything with a light red to give it the ethereal feel.  Once that was done i fixed the focus onto her face and blurred everything else ever so slightly.  So hopefully the pic doesn't look over editted, but there is definitely some work behind the scenes. I normally try to do more of this before I even take the photo but with these two movers and scooters, who has time!? 

:::sigh:::

I haven't taken any really GOOD pictures of my children in a while.  This was brought even more to my attention by my dad...I know i know....you come here to see the kids.  LOL.  So i decided ok, i can do this...no problem.  With Alexander walking now i figured it would be easy to get a few cute shots of him and his sister without having to pull grass and leaves out of his hands.  I was wrong.  I was very very wrong.  With walking being so new to Xander he has to explore anything and everything.  It's like the boy has never been outside of the living room and thus he must explore everything like it's a newly discovered planet.  This child...i swear he is going to give me a run for my money.  Kenzie as usual never looks at the camera.  She will smile and say cheese and look up, down, left, right, but NEVER at me.  When she does...it's a fluke.  So needless to say the session was a major FAIL. 

MOM! LOOK AT THIS NEW AND FASCINATING CREATURE THAT I HAVE NEVER SEEN EVERY DAY BEFORE!  IT IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND THUS I MUST EXPLORE FURTHER!!!

I did get one good one of Kenz.  So until I can have someone on 'posing' duty and I can just snap pictures...this is the best I could do.

a neat cheat sheet

that's some impressive rhyming huh?
For anyone just starting out and trying to learn their camera...i thought this was a neat little cheat sheet to look and learn from...